Australian FinTech marketplace Valiant announces capital raise
Valiant, member of fintech hub Stone & Chalk announced today that the company has completed their seed round capital raising subscription. The $800,000 capital raise was led by fintech venture capital firm Reinventure, supported by H2 Ventures and a selection of prominent angel investors including Mitchel Harad and Vincent Turner. Co-Founders Alex Molloy and Richard Cotton launched the Valiant business loan marketplace in November 2015, with the aim to minimise the angst associated with sourcing, comparing, and securing business loans. Valiant partners with over 26 lenders from across the lending spectrum with more lenders being added monthly. Alex Molloy: “We built the Valiant marketplace to solve a very particular need. Until now, it has been difficult for time poor business owners to quickly […]
Former Macquarie boss Allan Moss an investor in fintech ChimpChange
Former Macquarie Group chief and Reserve Bank of Australia board member Allan Moss has emerged as a backer of IPO hopeful ChimpChange, sources told Street Talk. Australian “digital bank” start-up ChimpChange has chosen to disrupt US banks, given their high fees for transferring money, but the company is back at home and seeking to raise circa $15 million with a planned listing on the Australian Securities Exchange. Moss’s support may provide ChimpChange’s sponsor brokers with extra momentum as they test the appetite of potential investors. He most recently threw his weight behind online consulting start-up Expert360, which also counts former Commonwealth Bank and Westpac chief information officer Bob McKinnon among […]
NAB, Westpac and Qantas invest in Data Republic
National Australia Bank, Westpac Banking Corp and Qantas have taken stakes in Data Republic, a Sydney-based start-up that has designed a platform which allows companies and government to exchange data in a secure environment. The deal indicates some of Australia’s largest companies are considering sharing data with each other to enhance service delivery but under strict controls to protect customer privacy. NAB, Westpac and Qantas have invested a combined $10.5 million into Data Republic’s recent Series A equity fundraising round. The stakes were acquired through Qantas Loyalty, NAB’s venture capital fund, NAB Ventures, and Westpac’s venture capital fund, Reinventure Group. The deal is Qantas’ first investment in a tech start-up […]
Sydney Stock Exchange’s blockchain system targets venture capital funds, commodities
Two-year-old Sydney Stock Exchange is building a blockchain settlement system to avoid high ASX fees and build a market for venture capital funds to exit their investments and commodities markets. The distributed ledger will initially only be used to settle trades in private companies, but once regulatory approval is gained, it will settle trades in publicly listed stocks. SSX will promote the new settlement system as a low cost alternative to the ASX to try to attract private equity funds to exit their investments by listing on the SSX. Settlement instantaneous Once complete in early 2018, SSX hopes to sell versions of its system – which is being built with […]
SocietyOne shifts from edgy start-up to $100m lender
The nation’s biggest peer-to-peer lender, SocietyOne, is growing up fast, and not in the same way as its renegade US cousin Lending Club. An ASIC search has revealed the stranglehold of the so-called media consortium (News Corp, Kerry Stokes and James Packer’s media-free Consolidated Press Holdings) over SocOne after the recent $25 million Series C capital raising. The consortium, through its vehicle S. One Holding, holds a commanding 37 per cent stake, with the News and Stokes interests believed to be dominant in the S. One Holding structure. Not only that, but Westpac’s in-house venture capital fund, Reinventure, speaks for a further 17 per cent of SocOne. Put the two […]
P2P lender SocietyOne eyes growth in market share
SocietyOne, the nation’s biggest marketplace lender, has forecast it will be cash-flow positive within two years, confirming it had raised an extra $25 million to support its growth plans. Completion of the Series C raising, revealed by The Australian last month, came as new chief executive Jason Yetton committed to a five-year goal to build a 2-3 per cent share of the $105 billion consumer finance market. “The opportunities that lie ahead of us are immense,” said Mr Yetton, a former senior Westpac executive. SocOne’s raising had a number of notable features, including a powerful consortium of billionaire shareholders taking a tighter grip on the company. Mr Yetton said Kerry […]
Manning targets super funds for P2P investor
Former JANA asset consultant Joshua Manning will be raiding his contact book of super fund investment chiefs as he does the rounds pitching his new business, Manning Market Place. His vision for the start-up specialist investment fund is to focus exclusively on the burgeoning peer-to-peer lending sector. Peer-to-peer (P2P), otherwise known as marketplace lending, is the buzzword for the plethora of online-based or “fintech” start-ups gnawing at the edges of the big banks’ loan books. After leaving his day job at the asset consulting arm of National Australia Bank late last year, Manning’s first investment is a stake in the darling of the local P2P set, SocietyOne. Other shareholders in […]
Sapien Ventures’ first fintech investment is in Hashching
Wealthy Chinese migrants will help disrupt the Australian mortgage broking industry via an investment in Hashching, an online marketplace for home loans that is putting pressure on banks and their brokers. The investment will be the first for Sapien Ventures, which was established last year by Victor Jiang and has raised a $50 million fund to invest in fintech and online marketplaces. Much of the capital has been raised from high-net-worth Chinese migrants after changes to the Significant Investor Visa program last year that require migrants bringing $5 million into Australia to invest at least $500,000 in eligible venture capital. Sapien Ventures has invested $1 million in Hashching, and is […]
